A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest shipping company, said one of its gas tankers is leaking fuel oil after colliding with a dry bulk ship off the coast of Venezuela.

The 20,900 cubic-meter ’Maersk Holyhead,’ which carries
liquefied petroleum gases, collided with the Liberia registered cargo ship at 5:45 p.m. Caracas time on Sunday,
Copenhagen-based A.P. Moeller said in a statement on its Web site Monday.

The tanker was carrying 11,200 metric tonnes of propane when the accident happened, about 88 kilometers off the Maracaibo Lake shipping lane, the main waterway for Venezuelan oil exports.
“The collision has resulted in a hole in the vessel’s starboard side above and below the waterline as well as
a leakage in a bunker tank containing about 500 cubic meters of fuel oil,” A.P. Moeller said. “The oil in this
tank is presently leaking into the sea.”
The cause of the collision hasn’t been clarified, A.P. Moeller said. The ship has been moved to the discharge port of El Tablazo, where it’s awaiting oil-containment equipment before offloading the cargo.
Maracaibo Port Capt. Oscar Ramirez said the incident has not caused shipping delays, though the lane was shut for a few hours Sunday evening to remove the ships. The closure did not coincide with scheduled tanker arrivals or departures.
The five-year-old LPG tanker, built at a Japanese shipyard, is registered in Guanta, Puerto La Cruz,Venezuela, and has Venezuelan officers and crew onboard, A.P. Moeller said. State-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has leased the ship for more than four years, using it for coastal trade, the company added.